Planning with the Australian Curriculum As a tutor and home educator in previous years I have held a light and casual relationship with the Australian Curriculum (AC) as only a general knowledge of key learning area content descriptors and achievement standards was required. Just enough to give form and progress to my teaching activities with my students and children. However, as a classroom educator my teaching abilities are assessed via a thorough knowledge and implementations of the full AC. Falling down the rabbit hole that is ACARA has been my experience of re-entering the classroom, and I am still falling. The Australian Curriculum provides guidelines for each learning area (subject) and content descriptions specify what young people will learn and achievement standards describe the depth of understanding, knowledge and skill that is expected of students at each level. A few options are open to the Charlotte Mason educator depending on the teaching and planning context. One is to begin with a plan provided by the school and make minor adjustments in delivery using the method of Charlotte Mason. Adjustments like replacing worksheets with narration, laying down the rails of study and personal habits beneficial in the classroom atmosphere, and using living books and outdoor hours where applicable. A second option is to follow your plan as provided and focus on the atmosphere and discipline in the classroom environment and assisting students to draw out key inspirational ideas and make connections of their learning with life experiences and other subjects at school. A third option is to begin at the beginning, with a thorough study of the Australian Curriculum and of Charlotte Mason's methods of teaching in the specific key learning areas and work out how they fit together. Thread by thread. This is what I am working with. Planning Tool - Overview Table A matrix chart, with rows and columns to visually present the content and standards of the specific learning area is a great starting place. Create a template that holds the year level content descriptors and achievement standards with space in each box for notes and dot points on living books, resources, ideas, narration prompts, and CM teaching methods that will the key content and achievement standard. This table will show, at a glance, where the AC and CM are compatible, where adjustments need to be made, and where the AC content might benefit from a contemporary teaching application. This table will also provide a solid guide for developing a cohesive and connected overall plan for the subject area and for developing specific unit plans. AC resources essential for developing this table include: - Cognitive Verbs - These verbs provide a guide for key academic language that teachers can use in the formulation of lesson plans, narration questions, and assessment questions that guide students thinking and responding with greater depth and understanding. - Standards Elaborations - These are a tool for teachers to use in making consistent and comparable judgement's about how well students demonstrate what they know. These standards form the basis for creating marking criteria and rubrics for assessments. - ACARA Sequence of Content and Sequence of Achievement pdf files for specific subjects. I use the English and History tables for my planning. These tables provide key information for content and development of understanding and skills essential for the details in the unit and lesson plans. This content and achievement are the point at which a teacher will match up the CM resources and teaching methods. Planning Steps 1) Choose the Books - Some books and resources may have been chosen in the overview stage and some are open for choosing during the planning and implementation of the unit lessons. Living books are key here. The living books will be sourced from classics lists, historical fiction, biographies and traveller's tales, poetry, essays and speeches. Amongst others. The text will need to connect well with the key content and be presented in a away that will be a springboard for key inquiry questions, discussion and learning activities that build on the content and standards. The text will also need to cater for a variety of reading abilities and be able to be comfortably read and responded to within the unit time frame. 2) Pre-Read - It's preferable for the teacher to own a personal copy of the text in order to annotate it for teaching. This method of pre-reading will allow the teacher to identify the inspirational ideas students may connect with, identify vocabulary or knowledge areas that may require explicit teaching opportunities and identify key quotes and narration questions applicable to the lesson content and standards. 3) Identify Required Knowledge - It is now understood that in order for students to engage with and understand a book they must have a certain level of vocabulary knowledge, general knowledge, and subject specific knowledge. Pre-reading will enable a teacher to identify key words and knowledge areas that will be necessary for students to engage thoughtfully and enthusiastically with the chosen book. This required knowledge can be implicitly embedded within the lesson activities and discussion or may be explicitly taught as a short object lesson. 4) Mental Image - Living texts should produce a mental picture in the students minds. When reading books and preparing for lessons, a teacher needs to consider what will help the students understand the text, enjoy the text and visualise a scene in their mind. Simple things like viewing a map showing context, reading a short blurb on cultural context, viewing a piece of fine art connected to the themes or content, or a landscape picture that matches a setting description are some ideas. Taking time for making these visual connections can be an essential step for students who are new to learning from books and students who are immersed in technology, movies, and gaming. 5) Identify Ideas - The teacher will have identified key ideas during the pre-reading process. In this stage it is important for teachers to present key ideas but to also guide students in the process of drawing key ideas from the text for themselves. This drawing out is usually done through narration and open ended questions. Cognitive verbs can assist here in the crafting of open ended key inquiry questions that meet the content and standard requirements of the AC. It can also be the trickiest skill to master in teaching and learning because it requires patient and thoughtful effort on the part of the teacher and student, along with a good dose of masterly inactivity. 6) Narration - Each lesson should involve time for a narrative retelling - verbal, written, or creative. An effective narration should demonstrate what the student has remembered from the text and connected with other subjects or books, what the student has thought in response to the text and how the student has engaged with the vocabulary, knowledge, and ideas presented in the text. The form of narration will apply to the requirements of the subject and unit being taught and skills being developed. "The most important part of our subject remains to be considered - the inspiring ideas we propose to give children in the things of the divine life. This is a matter we are a little apt to leave to chance, but when we consider the vitalising power of an idea, and how a single great idea changes the current of a life, it becomes us to consider very carefully what ideas of the things of God we must fitly offer children, and how these may be most invitingly presented." School Education pages 144-145 © Amy George January 2020 Please seek permission to link to or refer to this post.
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I am. Weathered white. Tossed, tumbled, washed worn edge. Empty shell I am. I wrote this haiku poem on my first lonely shore walk after my first year of classroom teaching. I had found an old white-washed shell tumbled onto the rocks. It was worn and had lost most of its distinguishing features. It was empty. I was empty. Classroom teaching can require much. Resting and recovering changed to refreshing and restoring myself for the new year ahead. I returned to some of the habits I had developed as a home educating Mum to nourish my heart and mind while raising and teaching my children. Once again I made time to take regular nature walks along the beach and dusted off my old nature journal and a natural history read. I sat under trees and once again enjoyed some books I had been wanting read for quite some time. I listened to music and played the piano and spent time in our garden. I meandered again through the Psalms and the Gospels and rediscovered the grace available to me for each and every day. I connected again with the story of God, the story of humanity, and the story of the world. I connected again with truth, goodness, and beauty. I drank from the well. Now my mind turns again to the classroom I will re-enter in a couple of weeks. Now I consider my lesson plans and begin to prepare. But this is the fun part. This is the preparation I find nourishing because this is where I pre-read the delightful books that will form the spine of our lessons for the term ahead. After this step I will return to the specific content and achievement standards from the Australian Curriculum I will be explicitly teaching from these living books. I will plan key lesson activities, questions, and habits of learning that form the bridge between the Australian Curriculum aspirations and requirements and the ideas to be found and communicated from our living books. As part of my preparation for this first term of 2020 I have been reading these three sources related to the Charlotte Mason method of teaching and how to implement the Australian Curriculum in a multi-level classroom. ~ A Liberal Education for All by Charlotte Mason and Agnus C. Drury (The Parents' Review 1916) ~ A Liberal Education by H.W. Household (The Parents' Review 1929) ~ Enacting Australian Curriculum: Planning issues and strategies for P-10 multiple year level classrooms (2011) And as I make these plans I will endeavour to hold before this golden rule: "Whereby teachers shall teach less and scholars shall learn more." © Amy George, January 2020
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AuthorI teach with the Charlotte Mason method in home education, tutoring and P-12 Christian school contexts in Australia. Archives
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